Grijalva to Interior Secretary: Do Not De-list Wolves

KJZZ News, Mark Brodie, May 17, 2013 (posted 05/20/13)

An Arizona Congressman is asking the Interior Secretary to cancel a pending rule that would de-classify many U.S. wolves as endangered. The change would apply to all gray wolves in the Lower 48 states, although there would be an exemption for less than 100 Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.

In a letter sent Friday, Southern Arizona Democrat Raul Grijalva asked Secretary Sally Jewell to maintain full Endangered Species Act protections for wolf populations currently covered by the law. He writes, “now is the time to support full wolf recovery, not shut down our efforts,” and calls the pending plan a “scientifically flawed delisting proposal.”

Supporters of the plan say it represents a success story, while some conservationists worry about its impact.

The federal government added the wolves to the Endangered Species list in the 1970s and began reintroducing them in the wild two decades later.

While all the organizations participating in mexicanwolves.org share the common goal of recovering the Mexican gray wolf, individual groups can, and sometimes do, differ in their approaches to specific issues.